Two Years in, Deion Sanders’s Jackson State Vision Is Alive As Ever

Coach Prime opens up on his pitch to recruits (and their mothers), how he’d react to a Power 5 offer and more.

A few seconds remained on the clock. Jackson State was putting the finishing touches on a 66–24 defeat of Grambling State, a typical score for a team that, openly and unabashedly, sets its sights not on merely winning games but on dominating. Devonta Davis, a Jackson State linebacker, whipped a wad of tape off his fingers and fired it toward a garbage can behind the JSU bench.

Davis might be a fine football player, able to tackle opponents from all manner of angles. But his long-range shooting skills leave something to be desired. The tape doinked off the can and hit the turf. Before celebrating with his teammates, Davis walked over to the trash, bent down, and picked up the tape. He knew that, if caught littering, he’d take up long-term tenancy in his coach’s doghouse.

Since agreeing to become head coach at Jackson State in 2020—one of the great upsets in recent college football history—Deion Sanders has done plenty. He’s turned Jackson State, an HBCU that went more than a decade without sending a player to the NFL, into a mid-major powerhouse. He was the driving force behind Travis Hunter, the top recruit last season, decommitting from Florida State (ironically, the school where Sanders starred in the 80s) and heading to central Mississippi. Sanders has brought commerce to the program, Mississippi’s beleaguered capital city, and some of his players, enriched as they now are by NIL deals.

Sanders’s Tigers are 5–0 to start the 2022 season.

Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

But it’s also the little things. He’s 55, Sanders is. And he still comes with his extravagant Prime Time touches—the gold whistle he wears around his neck, chief among them—and quotability. Yet for all his swag and swagger, Sanders is decidedly Old School. He hates pants that ride too low and socks drawn too high. He starts many sentences with “in my day” and he seldom uses language stronger than “darn,” which he pronounces durn.

A coaching version of broken windows theory, Sanders believes that little transgressions and frays to the team fabric lead to bigger problems. So you arrive on time. You “clean up your durn mess.” And if your thrown wad of tape deflects off the garbage can, you follow your own shot and deposit it accordingly.

In the cinematized version, Sanders stays in Jackson, builds up his underdog program and continues poaching recruits, who forego the lavish facilities and laser tag rooms and indoor waterfalls of Alabama (east) or Louisiana State (west) or Tennessee (north), for the ability to build something while playing in front of, not cotton-haired boosters in suites, but fans who look like they do. In the real world, does Sanders take a 10x or even 15x pay increase from his current $500,000 and bring his force of personality to a Power 5 program? We’ll see.

Meanwhile, Sanders has brought Prime Time, and all its trappings, to JSU. He’s sparked concern among Power 5 programs that HBCUs are an alternative for young (predominantly black) players, skeptical of the usual football factories. And, damn, is Sanders quotable.

This summer and fall he invited 60 Minutes to Jackson for a piece that airs Sunday night after the NFL. Herewith some outtakes, lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

Jon Wertheim: What’s the plan here?

Coach Prime: To win, to dominate. The only way you could become elevated is to dominate the area of the field that you’re in, in any capacity. When we dominate, kids get an opportunity to go to the next level, which is the NFL. When you dominate, academically, you get a degree.

JW: You’re saying this isn’t just about winning?

CP: It's a whole ‘nother level. We won last year. We gotta dominate this year.

JW: All right, we’ll start with football.

CP: It was horrible. No structure. No understanding on the potential. But that’s why I came. That’s why you brought me here. Whenever you come into a new situation, you’re replacing a situation that was bad and desolate and just—just foregone. So, I knew it was gonna be a tremendous challenge. But I was ready for it.

JW: What were the facilities like?

CP: Horrible … I’m sittin’ up here thinkin’, tremendously, we’re overlooked and underfunded. And then I wanna know who do I go to to talk to about those situations.

JW: You find out the answer?

CP: It’s a myriad of people. It’s a plethora of people that you go to, with city and state and government. I just wanna know because I’m just searchin’ for equality. My kids are here. Not only my kids that played for me—110, 115 kids— trainers, equipment, men, coaches, staff and everyone. But my kids, my sons; and my daughter plays basketball. And I think they deserve the best.

JW: So, we keep hearing about this arms race in college football and the locker rooms are gettin’ fancier and fancier and you got waterfalls and laser tag. You’re—you’re—

CP: ‘Cause those schools are makin’ a lotta money and those—I’m sorry: Those programs are makin’ a lotta money for the school. So, they’re facilitatin’ what’s funding them. That’s not the same with HBCUs … We’re talkin’ about a lot. But we’re actually asking an African American kid—mainly ‘cause it's 75% African American kids you're dealin’ with—to leave the inner city and come back to the inner city. What’s the benefit for him?

JW: What do you tell him?

CP: I’m not sellin’ ‘em on nothin’, really. I'm tellin’ ‘em the truth. I'm gonna make sure, mother, if you send me a boy, I’m gonna send you back a man prepared for life. Not just football but for life, because I gotta prepare him for the next level in all facets of life. Seventy-five percent of these young men don't have a father in their homes. I’m thankful if they do, because it makes our job so much easier. But I got to prepare that young man and I gotta equip him with the tools to fight for life.

JW: When these moms say, “I like you, coach, but this other school, they’re offering—they—they got waterfalls in the locker room”—

CP: I say, well, that’s what you want and that’s what you’re into, I think you should go and do that. But if you want me to really treat your son like a young man and raise him correctly and profoundly and chastise him and challenge him and provoke change in him and make sure he advance in his academics, and make sure he's a yes-sir, no-sir, yes-ma’am, no-ma’am type of young man, I’m the guy for you.

JW: What kinda player are you lookin’ for?

CP: Smart, tough, fast, disciplined with character … I want you to be that guy when nobody is lookin’. Be that same person when nobody’s lookin’. That’s character.

JW: Cameras are off, phone is off, social media’s off—

CP: Yeah, I don’t need you smokin’. I don't need you drinkin’. I don't need you doing anything excessively but workin’ and training and tryin’ to propel yourself as well as your family to the next level. Everyone has a dream until they have to work for it.

JW: What do you think you would’ve said if someone gave you the pitch that you’re giving these kids?

CP: Well, it’s not just the pitch. It’s not the finances and what you have to offer. Who do you have in place to help me advance my career? Do you have professional coaches in place that have been there, done that? What system? What academics? What tutors? What support system that you have in place to guide me? I need a navigational system to get me from point A to point B. Do you have that? And are you gonna be honest with me, truthful with me? Forget the game. I’m gonna ball. I know that. Ain’t nothin’ you could do about that. What else are you gonna bring to the table for me as a man?

JW: You said you go into these living rooms and you say to the mom, You’re gonna send me a boy, I’m gonna give you a man?

CP: Uh-huh.

Sanders was hired by Jackson State in September 2020.

Marcus Smith/Sports Illustrated

JW: How are you gonna do that?

CP: First of all, I’m a wonderful father. I mean, exceptional. I mean, when you talk about fathering, I promise you in the fatherin’ Hall of Fame, I’m up there in lights. So, I embody it. I love it. And when I look at these kids, I don’t look at them as just my players. I’m Dad, man. I’m the uncle. I’m the cousin. I’m not the brother. I'm not on the same level. I’m not that. I’m here, that you gonna treat me with respect—and I’m gonna respect you. But I’m gonna show you and tell you and teach you what to do and what not to do. So, if I tell you that oven is hot, don’t touch it, because I’ve already touched it. I'm tellin’ you it’s hot because of experience. Because there’s nowhere that these players wanna go that I hadn’t been.

Watch college football with fuboTV. Start your free trial today.

JW: Let’s talk compensation.

CP: Uh-huh.

JW: There are strength coaches that are makin’ multiples more than you are—

CP: Well, that should tell you it ain’t ‘bout the money. Yeah, it can’t be about the money. Coachin’ takes a lot of your time. My time is my biggest asset. Time is the most precious coin that we all possess. And if I spend it on something that I don’t love and I don’t adore, I'm wastin’ it. I'm not wastin’ time here. And I’m not countin’ dollars. If I was here for the money, I wouldn’t have taken this job.

JW: Let’s be blunt. I mean, straight talk. Let’s—you—you don’t need the money.

CP: Let’s not say we don't need the money because everyone has needs and wants and desires—

JW: Let—let me change that. This is not changing your lifestyle—

CP: Right, whatsoever.

JW: Right. What happens when a Power 5 school says give us a number and we’ll make it work?

CP: I'm gonna have to entertain it.

JW: You are?

CP: Yes, I’m gonna have to entertain it. Straight up. I'd be a fool not to. Let me tell you somethin’. I'm askin’ the Lord— when I pause, I’m not lost for words. I’m tryin’ to figure out how I’m gonna say it to you —This is my biggest concern: I have a few people on the staff that has been with me for the last 20 years from when we started with youth football. I got a few people on the staff that has coached in professional football. Few people that matriculated from high school and some that were already in college. I think my highest compensated coach may be [earning] $125,000; somethin’ like that.

JW: $125,000?

CP: Yeah. Am I a blessing to him? Or am I holdin’ him back? I really have to consider those things because these are my guys. The bible says thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. These guys give me comfort, man. I wouldn’t be who I am without these men. And I gotta make sure I’m doin’ what’s best for them at all times.

JW: You’ll have the opportunity to take your guys with you—

CP: That’s what it's about. It’s not about me. Because whatever they give me, it’s not gonna change my lifestyle. But it’s gonna change theirs … It’s gonna change the whole trajectory of their families. So, I really gotta consider that.

JW: You know how this plays out if it’s a movie?

CP: How does it play out?

JW: That you get a big offer and they say name your price but you can’t wear that jewelry. You gotta put your fishin’ rod away. ’Cause the boosters wanna go golfing.

CP: Well, who do you want?

JW: And you say what?

CP: You want a robot or you want Coach Prime? Because if you want Coach Prime, I come with this. This is who I am. This is why you want me. I didn’t call you. You called me. I’m fine. I’m good. I have so much peace in my life, it’s crazy. I have a wonderful ride on the way to work with my dog right here in the car with me, and I'm chillin’. And if you ever try to take my fishin’ away, we got a problem.

JW: That’s the deal-breaker right there.

CP: You better not ever try to take my fishin’ away.